After a bit of a slow start to the cross country season, Camas High School (CHS) junior Sam Geiger turned it around at the Nike Hole in the Wall race, held at Lakewood High School in Arlington, Washington, on Saturday, Oct. 12.
Out of 380 of the top high school runners in the region, Geiger finished third, blistering a new personal best 5,000-kilometer time of 15 minutes, 15 seconds.
“I had an awesome race,” he said. “It was crazy. With nearly 400 runners on the starting line, you make sure to get out super fast because you don’t want to go out too slow and get caught behind everyone.”
The entire CHS boys team rose to the challenge, finishing third out of 52 schools. Evan Jenkins finished sixth and Spencer Twyman finished 13th.
Papermakers coach Laurie Porter was pleased with the performance, especially considering the fact that CHS’ top runner, Luc Utheza, missed the race because of a minor calf injury.